Watford managed to land a 1-0 win over Swansea City on Saturday despite playing the final 25 minutes with ten men at Vicarage Road.
Midfielder Valon Behrami was sent off in the 64th minute for an ill-disciplined stamp on Andre Ayew but the Hornets were able to hold onto their one-goal lead which came five minutes earlier.
The producer of the winner was Odion Ighalo who scored the Hertfordshire club's first home goal since the opening day of the season when he coolly slotted past Lukasz Fabianski after being found by the head of Troy Deeney.
Quick Flores' Hornets could have counted themselves lucky for going ahead but they were actually the better of the two teams after Behrami was given his marching orders and may have finished with a bigger win if Fabianski had not have made some key saves late.
The win was Watford's first of their top flight return, pushing them up to 13th on the table, as Garry Monk's Swans fell to eighth with their first defeat of the campaign.
MATCH OVERVIEW
Watford: 1 (Odion Ighalo 59', red card: Valon Behrami 64')
Swansea City: 0
Vicarage Road, Watford - 20,057
TALKING POINTS
- Can this be the win Watford need to gain some true Premier League belief?
- Is this merely a blip on Swansea's radar following a decent start to the new campaign?
WHAT'S NEXT?
Watford will look to make it two in a row when they travel to struggling Newcastle United on Saturday as Swansea prepare for a home meeting with in-form Everton.
TWITTER INSIGHT
I vow to give all Glory to God pic.twitter.com/59JDMcWPec
— JUDE (@ighalojude) September 12, 2015Great win today, great support! Let's keep up the good work! Well done boys ! #Godisgreat… https://t.co/Oo1yL5uoc2
— HEURELHO GOMES (@hdgomes) September 12, 2015.@LukaszFabianski insists #Swans will show a positive reaction against @Everton next weekend - http://t.co/VppL79O3dWpic.twitter.com/Yn7vqmXogY
— Swansea City FC (@SwansOfficial) September 14, 2015
QUOTES CORNER
Swansea boss Monk on conceding in such a manner:
"It summed our day up - poor. We had enough men there to deal with it and we didn't. It was an extremely poor goal and I am disappointed with that."
Watford's Flores on scoring for the first time in four games:
"We are really happy with the first win because we are wishing to score. When you create attempts but you don't score, sometimes the players forget they are working well.
"We told the players, 'don't worry, it is not a problem it is football', but it is better if we score and the players can be happy."
STATS SPECIALS
*Thanks to Opta
100 - Ighalo's goal against Swansea is the 100th scored at Vicarage Road in the Premier League, 3044 days after the 99th. Gap.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 12, 201518 - Odion Ighalo has scored more league goals (top four tiers) than any other player in England in 2015: 18 in 23 games. Deadly. #WatfordFC
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 12, 2015
TEAM LEADERS
WATFORD
Goals - Odion Ighalo 2
Assists - Troy Deeney 2
Clean sheets - Heurelho Gomes 3
Yellow cards - Allan Nyom 2
Red cards - Valon Behram 1
SWANSEA
Goals - Bafetimbi Gomis 4
Assists - Five players on 1
Clean sheets - Lukasz Fabianski 1
Yellow cards - Jonjo Shelvey, Andre Ayew 2
